UNPLANNED LIFE EVENTS USED FOR GOD’S GLORY

by Hal Kemp

How do you respond when unplanned events or situations come your way in the course of daily living? I think most of us would just as soon avoid those kinds of happenings. We become very comfortable with the routines of life. But then along comes something that brings about a change of direction and we wonder what is happening. We ask God “why?” or “why me?” or say “not now.” I have recently concluded almost 47 years of local church and overseas cross-cultural ministry since college. As I look back, I clearly see God’s hand in how he has lead on this exciting journey of faith.

God, in His plan, drew me to Himself as a young boy in a church that was very missions minded. The seed of missions was watered by attending Urbana at the end of my university years. After teaching high school mathematics for three years and then going to grad school, God further planted a seed in my heart for teaching missionary kids in the Philippines. My wife and I and our three children spent ten years in that ministry.

Since the early 1980s, after returning from overseas, God has given me the privilege of serving in a local church in California in the global outreach ministry as a layperson, then as an elder, while working in the business world. I served on the full-time staff for the last seven and a half years as Global Outreach Director. It has been a joy to serve the Lord and to have had a small part in getting the gospel to the least-reached in the world. I have especially enjoyed the personal relationships with our supported missionaries and the privilege to visit and encourage a number of them in their places of ministry. Communicating with them and with the congregation about them through various means is so critical.

In looking back to my boyhood and seeing how God has led in my life, I certainly did not know how He would use various events and people to direct my life. But, the exciting part is that He is not finished! The following verse captures the thoughts for my wife and me about the future: “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of grace of God” (Acts 20:24 ESV).
How has God used the “unplanned” events in your life for His glory?